Wiring harness or short circuit on the 2008 Toyota Tundra
1 fire 1 of the 11 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When wiring harness or short circuit gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Toyota Tundra report wiring harness or short circuit at a median of 20,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 25,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 45,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 35,840 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
78% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,860 miles | 8,500 miles | 21,000 miles | 23,200 miles | 42,700 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$3,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2013 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I have a 2008 toyota tundra truck 5.7 v8 extended cab 4x4 my wife and I drove from chandler az to idaho ,then to yellowstone, then back to salt lake and then to phoenix az till then ever thing was great the truck ran very well. We coming down interstate 17 from flagstaff to phoenix about 3/4 of the to phoenix. I was traveling at the speed limit at 75 MPH and had just punched the accelerator pedal to pass a car while going up hill. The accelerator pedal went down to the floor and would not release back as normal . The truck proceed to accelerate to 90 MPH and at this point I again pushed 5-6 times on the accelerator pedal to have it release but it continued to go faster to 100 MPH at this point I knew we in deep trouble and danger. I was pushing hard on the brake and trying to move from the left lane in traffic at night to the right lane to try and stop the truck . I got to the right lane and to the shoulder and hit the emergency brake and was stamping hard on the break pedal and trying to shift out of gear to neutral . In the panic I am not sure what all happened but the truck lunged forward very hard then died / engine stopped…
I have a 2008 toyota tundra truck 5.7 v8 extended cab 4x4 my wife and I drove from chandler az to idaho ,then to yellowstone, then back to salt lake and then to phoenix az till then ever thing was great the truck ran very well. We coming down interstate 17 from flagstaff to phoenix about 3/4 of the to phoenix. I was traveling at the speed limit at 75 MPH and had just punched the accelerator pedal to pass a car while going up hill. The accelerator pedal went down to the floor and would not release back as normal . The truck proceed to accelerate to 90 MPH and at this point I again pushed 5-6 times on the accelerator pedal to have it release but it continued to go faster to 100 MPH at this point I knew we in deep trouble and danger. I was pushing hard on the brake and trying to move from the left lane in traffic at night to the right lane to try and stop the truck . I got to the right lane and to the shoulder and hit the emergency brake and was stamping hard on the break pedal and trying to shift out of gear to neutral . In the panic I am not sure what all happened but the truck lunged forward very hard then died / engine stopped…
The day after purchasing my vehicle (12/25/08), the windshield was hit by a rock which caused a chip. The chip repair did not hold and the chip extended into a crack. This crack went across the lower portion of the windshield and curved down toward the dash. I called the dealer to inquire about repair, and was told that my vehicle was not built with a heated windshield so I elected to wait until the end of winter to replace the windshield. About 2 weeks later I came out to go to work, started the vehicle, and turned on the heated mirrors. I got out of the vehicle and went to open my gate and feed the dog, upon returning to the truck I smelled a burning electrical odor. At this time I noticed a flashing and a flame coming from the lower passenger side of the windshield. It was beginning to grow so I shut the vehicle off. I then called the dealer and they came and towed the vehicle in to their shop. They contacted toyota corporate and were told that the vehicle was not built with a heated windshield which is what the build specification sheet states. After investigating further it was determined that my truck was indeed built with a…
Also reported on the 2008 Toyota Tundra
Other speed control problem
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other suspension problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 11 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does wiring harness or short circuit happen on the 2008 Toyota Tundra?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 20,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 25,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is wiring harness or short circuit on the 2008 Toyota Tundra?
11 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed